Securities regulators in the U.S. and Canada are probing whether a recent news report about a possible purchase of BlackBerry Ltd. by Samsung Electronics Co. was sparked by investors intent on manipulating the Canadian smartphone maker’s stock. Read More »

South Korean conglomerate Samsung may sell its majority stake in a Tokyo skyscraper, people familiar with the matter said, in a move that is likely a cost-cutting initiative.

The conglomerate’s Japan team plans to move out of the 27-story building in Tokyo’s upscale Roppongi neighborhood at the end of March, the people say, partly to consolidate a few of its office locations in Tokyo. Read More »

For months, the predictions around the next flagship smartphone from Samsung Electronics have focused on curves — namely, the upcoming device, expected to be called the Galaxy S6, is widely believed to come with the sort of tapered edge display the company first showcased on the Galaxy Note 4 Edge last September. This time, there might even be two edges, analysts say.

Well, Samsung sure isn’t shirking those rumors with the invitation to its latest keynote event, slated for a March 1 unveiling on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona in early March. The invitation, which has just two words in its tagline — “What’s Next” — features a curved line that, if squinted at in a certain way, could suggest the curved edge of an upcoming state-of-the-art smartphone. Read More »

Samsung Electronics said Thursday that its fourth-quarter net profit fell 27% from a year earlier, marking a third straight quarter of decline. Here are five takeaways from the South Korean technology giant’s earningSamsung Electronics said Thursday that its fourth-quarter net profit fell 27% from a year earlier, marking a third straight quarter of decline.

Here are five takeaways from the South Korean technology giant’s earnings release. Read More »

Samsung Electronics is scheduled to release its fourth-quarter earnings Thursday before markets open in Seoul.

Net profit of 4.5 trillion won ($4.2 billion) is the forecast, according to the average estimate of eight analysts polled by The Wall Street Journal, compared with 7.3 trillion won a year earlier. The survey comes after the company projected an operating profit decline of as much as 40% of 5.0 trillion won for the quarter from 8.3 trillion won a year earlier.

When Nicole Kim started out as a semiconductor design engineer at Samsung Electronics Co. in 1994, there were so few women doing jobs like hers that she can still recall the human resource department’s discomfort, and its attempts to persuade her to switch roles. Read More »

Can Samsung Electronics design its way out of its recent profit slide?

As the South Korean smartphone giant struggles to fend off a slew of low-cost Chinese and Indian handset makers and a reinvigorated Apple, it is increasingly drawing from its Cupertino, Calif. rival’s bench of talent to bolster its design chops. The latest move: Samsung plucked Lee Don-tae, a top executive at U.K. design agency Tangerine that consulted for Apple in the early 1990s, as senior vice president of Samsung’s global design team, giving him oversight of the company’s global design centers. Read More »

Samsung, instead, spent the week touting an upgraded screen color technology that can be applied to existing liquid crystal displays, allowing a similar color representation as OLEDs but at much more affordable price points. Read More »

About Korea Real Time

Korea Real Time provides sharp analysis and insight into what’s making news on the Korean peninsula. We chronicle the growing pains of South Korea — a country that has skyrocketed into the club of the world’s richest nations but now faces significant headwinds, and shine a spotlight on one of the world’s biggest geopolitical flashpoints: North Korea. Drawing on the expertise of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, we’ll tell the stories behind the headlines in business, economics, politics, culture and lifestyle. You can contact the editors at korearealtime@wsj.com